The Nourishing Gourmet

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Thyme and Garlic Potato Stacks

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Garlic and thyme potato stacks in muffin tins

Imagine this: Melt-in-your-mouth tender potatoes that are bursting with garlic and fresh thyme. This elegant potato dish is a beautiful side for holiday meals (or really, just anytime!). The concept is simple—use a mandoline to thinly and evenly slice potatoes, toss with melted butter, fresh garlic, and thyme, stack in muffin tins, and then roast in the oven until the tops are browned, and the potatoes are tender in the middle. 

We tried this a few times, and we found that olive oil also works for a dairy-free version. Sweet potatoes are also quite good.

Some Notes on Tools:

Note on Ingredients:

  • Yes, this is a large amount of butter or oil, but you need the potatoes to be well-coated with fat to cook properly and not dry out. 
  • Make sure the potatoes you use are small enough in diameter that they can stack, sliced, in your muffin tins. We tried out a variety of potatoes and they all worked! My favorite may have been Yukon golds. 
  • Feel free to cut the recipe in half. 
picture of potato stacks in muffin tins

Thyme and Garlic Potato Stacks

PDF Printable, Serves 8-12

Ingredients:

  • 3 lbs potatoes (see note above), scrubbed and rinsed. 
  • 1 cup butter or olive oil (if using olive oil, start with ¾ cup, and use the extra ¼ if needed) 
  • 1 ½ teaspoons of salt 
  • 2-4 tablespoons of fresh thyme (rinse, and then slide your fingers up the stem of thyme sprig to remove the herb leaves for this recipe) 
  • 6-8 garlic cloves, peeled and finely minced

Directions:

1: Preheat oven to 375F. Lightly grease muffin tins (2 dozen). 

    2. Using the thinnest setting (1/16 inch), thinly slice the potatoes using a mandoline.  

    3. Melt butter in a small pot until just melted. Take off heat and cool slightly. Add salt, thyme and garlic to the butter, and then pour over potatoes and gently toss until each slice is coated. (If using olive oil, start with ¾ a cup, and add an extra ¼ cup, if needed to lightly coat potatoes). 

    4. Stack potato slices in muffin tins. They will shrink while cooking, so stack higher than the top of the muffin tin. 

    5. Put into the middle of the oven, and cook until the potatoes are soft in the middle (I check with a toothpick), and the edges and tops are starting to brown. This should take around 45 minutes, but start checking at 35-40 minutes. 

    6. Carefully remove potato stacks from muffin tins (I find a thin heat-safe spatula or butter knife helpful here), and serve right away. 

    7. For Thanksgiving, I put them in a casserole dish and covered with foil to keep warm until serving. 

    The Great Big Holiday Salad

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    large salad bowl full of salad and toppings

    This holiday-worthy salad is bursting with a variety of flavors and textures with dried cranberries, crunchy pumpkin seeds, fresh apples, crispy sweet potato slices, and roasted Brussels sprouts. Its colorful appearance hints at the wide range of antioxidants and nutrients it brings along with its flavor. Topped with our favorite balsamic vinaigrette, we decided we wanted this salad more often than just special occasions.

    I made this for Thanksgiving, and it would make the perfect salad for a Christmas meal as well, but I think we will make it regularly! You can easily turn it into a main dish event by adding another protein (chicken, turkey, crumbled cheese, or even beans)! 

    You may find that you have plenty of these ingredients on hand after Thanksgiving, so this could be a great time to try this recipe out.

    Notes:

    • You can air fry the vegetables and cut the cooking time in half. 
    • Variation: Use pomegranate seeds instead of dried cranberries
    • Use whatever apple you love to snack on (honeycrisp, pink lady, or gala are some of our favorites) 
    • You can use sprouted pumpkin seeds or soaked and dried ones, if desired

    Other Recipes You May Enjoy:

    The Great Big Holiday Salad

    PDF to print

    Ingredients:

    • 2 small (or 1 large/medium) sweet potatoes, peeled and then thinly sliced. 
    • 8 ounces (about a heaping cup) Brussels sprouts
    • 8 cups of lettuce (I like a mixture of chopped romaine and spring mix) 
    • 2 tablespoons fresh thyme (optional) 
    • Salt 
    • 3-4 tablespoons oil or fat of choice (I used extra virgin olive oil) 
    • 1 large apple, cored and thinly sliced 
    • ½ fresh lemon (optional) 
    • ⅓ cup of pumpkin seeds 
    • ½ cup dried cranberries (you can use fruit sweetened, if desired) 
    • 1 recipe balsamic vinaigrette (below)

    Directions:

    1. Preheat oven to 425. Put parchment paper on a sheet pan. Prepare sweet potatoes by peeling, then cut in half lengthwise (for small sweet potatoes) or cut into quarters for a large sweet potato. Then, thinly slice. Cut thin so that they will get browned and crispy when roasted. Rinse Brussels sprouts, and cut the woody stem off. Cut each Brussels sprout into quarters. Place sprouts on one half of the prepared sheet pan and drizzle with one tablespoon of oil/fat, one tablespoon of the optional fresh thyme, and salt. Toss to evenly coat. If the sprouts aren’t well coated with oil, add a second tablespoon and toss again. Do the same with the sweet potatoes on the other side of the sheet pan with the other 2 tablespoons of oil/fat, salt, and optional fresh thyme. 

    2. Put in the middle of the oven and roast until the sweet potatoes are starting to crisp and brown (around 25 minutes). Remove from oven and cool. 

    3. While the vegetables are cooking, make the balsamic dressing, and core and cut the apples. If not serving right away, toss apples with lemon juice to prevent browning. 

    4. To serve: In a large bowl, place all of your greens, and then add the rest of the toppings. Drizzle with the dressing, toss to coat well, and serve.

    Balsamic Vinaigrette 

    Ingredients:

    • 1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
    • ¾  cup extra virgin olive oil
    • 2 teaspoons dijon style mustard
    • 1 teaspoon unrefined salt
    • 1-3 garlic cloves, peeled, and finely minced or put through a garlic press

    Directions: Put all the ingredients into a mason jar, put the lid on, and shake until well mixed (or, whisk with a small whisk in a bowl).

    Spicy Korean Beef and Cabbage

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    A bowl full of spicy Korean beef and cabbage.

    This simple main dish is not only full of healthy protein and vegetables, but is also bursting with flavor! Even better, it is a fast main dish to make on busy nights and is incredibly frugal. We usually eat this once a week on a night when I have 30 minutes or less to make dinner. 

    With food costs where they are right now, I am loading our menu with meal options that fill us up for less, and this fits the bill. My kids and husband eat this over rice, and I usually eat a bowl of it plain or served over konjac noodles for a grain-free option.

    One of the secrets of this meal is using the Korean spicy fermented red chili paste called gochujang. This spicy paste is the secret to many Korean dishes, and I always keep it on hand. (Many of them contain gluten, but this brand is what I use and is gluten-free. Unless you like things really spicy, I recommend buying mild or medium.) I even noticed that Trader Joe’s was carrying gochujang for a great price recently! 

    However, if you are not a K-drama junkie like we are (and don’t usually cook Korean-inspired meals), you can easily substitute red chili flakes or sriracha sauce instead. (I really love this organic sriracha sauce, and we use it to top this dish to add more flavor when serving!)

    Note: While I am calling this recipe “Korean” because of the gochujang sauce, this is not a traditional Korean dish.

    We do a lot of Asian-inspired meals in our family, as they are flavorful, protein and produce-rich, and are naturally gluten and dairy-free with just a few tweaks (like using tamari instead of soy sauce). 

    While I am avoiding grains most of the time right now, my family enjoys this meal with rice which is a very frugal carbohydrate. I also can get a 2 pound package of coleslaw mix at Sam’s Club right now for slightly over 2 dollars. Cabbage is on the Clean 15 list, a list of produce with the least amount of pesticide residue, making this a not only very frugal ingredient but also a safer one too! 

    Other Recipes You Might Like:

    Bowl of spicy Korean cabbage and beef

    Spicy Korean Beef and Cabbage

    Serves 4, Printable PDF

    • 1 pound coleslaw mix (slightly more, or slightly less cabbage will work too!)  
    • ⅓-½ cup water 
    • 1 pound of lean ground meat (I usually use lean grassfed beef, but ground turkey is lovely too.) 
    • 1 tablespoon onion powder 
    • 3-6 garlic cloves minced (or 2-4 teaspoon garlic powder) 
    • 1-2 teaspoons of dried ginger powder (or 1 to 2 tablespoons minced fresh ginger) 
    • 1 tablespoon gochujang (to add spice without gochujang paste, substitute 1 teaspoon or so of red chili flakes, or a tablespoon or two of sriracha sauce, to taste.) 
    • 1 tablespoon rice vinegar (unflavored and unsweetened) 
    • 2 tablespoon tamari (GF soy sauce option) 
    • 1 teaspoon toasted sesame oil 
    • Sesame seeds and/or chopped green onions, to finish (optional)
    1. In a large pot, add the coleslaw mix and the water. Cook for 3-5 minutes over medium high heat, until water is mostly gone, and cabbage is wilted, stirring to prevent any sticking. Start with ⅓ cup of water and add more if needed. 
    2. Add ground beef, onion powder, garlic, gochujang, vinegar, and tamari. Stir, and break ground beef into small pieces, and cook until meat is cooked (no longer pink), and moisture is mostly gone again. 
    3. Add 1 teaspoon of toasted sesame oil and stir to disperse. Now taste test, and add more tamari, vinegar, gochujang or sesame oil to desired taste. 
    4. To serve, eat in bowls with or without rice, and sprinkle with chopped green onions and/or sesame seeds. We also like a drizzle of this sriracha sauce.

    Vietnamese Beef Noodle Salad

    by 2 Comments 

    




    This refreshing, gluten-free salad is full of flavor with the punch of rice vinegar, the saltiness of fish sauce, the sweetness of honey or sweetener of choice, and the herby savoriness of cilantro and/or basil. It also happens to be one of my favorite meals right now. Not only is it delicious, but it is packed with nutrients! 
    




    While, yes, I eat this just because it’s so good, I also aimed to get a rainbow of produce in this recipe, which adds not only more flavor but also important nutrients, antioxidants, and a wide variety of fiber sources. Win-win! 
    




    The other aspect I love about all of the added vegetables is that it helps you stay with an appropriate amount of noodles. We often want a huge plateful of pasta — with this recipe, you can have a large plate of pasta, but half of it is vegetables! 
    




    This recipe also works for those of you who are on THM (Trim Healthy Mama) as an “E” meal. 
    




    We’ve eaten this meal many times through the summer, and it’s perfect for hot weather, but we eat it year-round. 
    




    I named this a Vietnamese recipe, although I do want to clarify that this isn’t a claim to being an authentic Vietnamese recipe, but rather, I’ve used some of the flavor profiles and sauce inspiration from Vietnamese cuisine. 
    




    Notes on the recipe: 
    




    • Traditionally, a recipe like this would have used white rice noodles, such as rice sticks. I am using whole grain brown rice noodles. You can get something like these stir-fry Thai Kitchen brown rice noodles, though I have been using brown rice fettuccine noodles, as they are cheaper and similar in taste and texture. 
    • This will need to be served right away. If you aren’t serving it right away, you can keep the elements of the recipe separate, and toss right before serving (toss the noodles with a bit of the sauce and/or oil to keep them from sticking before storing them, however, or simply make the other elements – the sauce, the meat, and the chopped vegetables, and cook the noodles right before serving. 
    




    Notes on THM: 
    




    • While technically you are supposed to use 96% lean meat for an E meal on THM, because I don’t add any fat to this recipe, I use the 93% grasssfed ground beef that I find locally and I think that works well for fat limits for an E meal. If you don’t use a lean meat here, it counts as a cross-over (XO). 
    • Honey isn’t encouraged on THM when in weight loss mode, but the ¼ a cup of honey here is pretty small per serving. I’ve tested this with both honey and xylitol, and both worked very well. Allulose should work perfectly too (and is dog-safe, unlike xylitol). 
    • Brown rice noodles are on plan on THM, but you are encouraged to watch your blood sugar when eating them, if you are sensitive, and to keep your portions small. This recipe works well, because it mixes vegetables with the noodles for a filling meal, without leaning completely on the noodles. 
    • Cassava noodles are not considered on-plan for THM, but for those grain-free, some find that they do well with occasional cassava noodles (cassava is also a wonderful prebiotic fiber!). Some other grain-free noodle options to play with are here. 
    




    




    Vietnamese Beef Noodle Salad 
    




    Serves: 6-8
    




    Ingredients: 
    




    Meat:
    




    • 1 lb ground beef (96% or up, for an E meal)
    • 1 tsp dried ginger
    • 3 cloves garlic
    • 2 tbsp rice vinegar
    • 1 tbsp tamari or coconut aminos or fish sauce
    • Optional: 1 tsp onion powder and 1 tsp garlic powder
    • Optional: pinch or two of red pepper flakes
    • Add more coconut aminos/tamari/fish sauce, and vinegar to taste
    




    Sauce/Dressing
    




    • Scant ¼ cup honey or ¼ cup xylitol. Other options: Allulose, or of-plan organic white sugar
    • ½ cup hot or warm water
    • ½ cup rice vinegar
    • ¼ cup fish sauce
    • 3 garlic cloves, finely minced
    • Scant 1 tsp dried ginger
    • Pinch of cayenne pepper
    




    Salad
    




    • 8-12 oz dried pasta *
    • 2 cucumbers
    • 3-6 green onions
    • 2 large bell peppers (red, yellow, or orange)
    • 1 bunch of cilantro
    • Optional: a few handfuls of (Thai) basil
    • 4 cups shredded or thinly sliced cabbage
    




    *We usually use brown rice noodles, but I also tried this with 8 ounces of cassava noodles for a grain-free option. Both worked! But the cassava needs to especially be eaten right away as it will get mushy if left to sit. Cassava noodles aren’t on THM, although some use it as a personal choice option if needed.
    




    Directions:
    




    1. Make the sauce by first stirring together the hot or warm water with the sweetener of choice. Add the rest of the ingredients. Set aside.
    2. Prep the vegetables: Peel the cucumbers and cut into small wedges. Seed and thinly slice the sweet bell peppers. Thinly slice cabbage, chop the green onions (removing the top two inches and discarding), and wash the cilantro, remove the stems, and chop.
    3. Cook pasta according to box directions, but make sure you salt well. While the pasta cooks make up the ground beef, adding the seasoning as it cooks, and stirring frequently.
    4. Drain the pasta once just tender, and rinse with cold water. Drain well. Add to a large bowl with the vegetables, and then toss with the dressing.
    5. Serve right away. You can also add more rice vinegar and fish sauce to add more flavor if needed. Over time, the noodles will start absorbing the sauce, so, if needed, you can add a bit more vinegar and either tamari, coconut amino acids, or fish sauce, to taste.